I'm often asked by wedding photographers if I shoot rehearsal dinners and the answer is: rarely. They're not a part of my wedding collections, but I did have the opportunity to shoot Nicole and Matt's rehearsal dinner a few months ago, designed by the uber fab Beth Helmstetter. It was a great learning experience because it forced me to rethink how I approach photographing a wedding event, that's not a wedding at all.

Nicole and Matt host their wedding at Hummingbird Nest Ranch, so they also opted to host their rehearsal dinner there as well, on a different part of the vast property. We arrived a bit early to ensure we photographed details (our basic rule of thumb is photograph anything the bride might want to remember 10 years from now), then reprogramed our minds…

All wedding detail photos were taken with the 50mm, 1.2 lens.

JD and I hung back in the shadows and took a completely hands-off approach to our photography…instead of guiding (which sometimes happens on a wedding day due to tight scheduling), we simply waited until we were spoken to, opting to candidly photograph the event unless asked otherwise.

This process–waiting and watching–taught me a great deal about patience and watching for the private moments to happen. There's a beauty in being still and I appreciated the exercise of being quiet and patient.

I'll on this note…Nicole and Matt greeted guests as they walked up a long driveway, but every so often, they managed to sneak in a private moment for a kiss or two along the way…

If your photography style is photojournalistic in nature, I salute you (wait, can I salute someone if I've never been in the armed forces?!). It's a refined art to be patient, quiet, and observant and I'm working on honing these skills photographically (JD would also like this to be applied at home as well). I'm sure loving parenthesis today.

A few tips I might add to those photographing a rehearsal dinner would be:
   1. Smile. Because I was practicing being more observant of the situation, I needed to ensure I didn't give off the impression I was aloof, or didn't want to be there. I needed to let my clients and their guests know I was there to be document anything they wanted without using words and a smile achieves this perfectly.
   2. Arrive early. It goes without saying, but guests will arrive early and begin to place their coats, purses, and other items on the tables and it's difficult to remove clutter from a table when I'm trying to photograph the details. I immediately start photographing the tables and JD immediately starts with the drink station…he begins there because once the glasses get removed and the drinks begin to drip, it can make for messy photos.
   3. Anticipate emotion. Generally speaking, the rehearsal dinner is when the bride and groom are seeing their closest friends and family. We want to make sure we're documenting these moments of elation and joy as they're happening, not after. This means we're staying on our toes and watching for new scenes unfolding, like someone seeing a friend's baby for the first time, or lighting of a cigar with friends, or a deep embrace from a cousin. These little moments are often the biggest in retrospect.

Hope this helps and I hope you're having a beautiful Wednesday!